He tweets once or twice a week. (I follow him, despite knowing next to nothing about mortgages — other than that I’m thankful I’m not trying to sell my home right now.) Brady’s model is one that would be excellent for local businesses to use to drum up weekend foot traffic, for instance. The Alamo Drafthouse could post its midnight movies. Hyde Park Theatre could post new show times and link to positive reviews. Restaurants, their specials, fish in season, drinks, so on.

I found Brady’s mortgage report and @AndyBeal‘s follow-me-and-win contest (he’s up to 643 now, by the way — his contest is kicking ass) from their blogs. So in both cases they are solving the ‘finding followers’ challenge by posting elsewhere and directing traffic to twitter.

Also in both instances, the new follower has a clear incentive for following. It’s not enough to say: follow me on twitter. Instead: here’s why you should follow me on twitter.

Businesses should also consider including instructions for joining twitter in their promotions. Build that in, and show just how easy it is to adopt twitter use. Accept the responsibility for promoting the twitter brand along with promoting your own deal.